Electronic video poker has also been a staple in gaming casinos for many years and this well known game is a single player game based on draw poker. The player attempts to achieve a winning poker hand ranking by discarding from an initial five card hand and drawing new cards in order to try and improve his poker hand. A pay table is provided to show the player what he can win based on the poker hand ranking achieved after the draw step and the amount wagered by the player.
There have been attempts to adapt stud poker to an electronic video game format. One attempt involved a single player seven card stud game in which the player makes a first wager and initially received three cards face up. In one version of this game, the player has the option of making additional wagers before the player receives the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh cards. In another version, the player also has the option of making additional wagers before receiving the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh cards unless the player has already achieved a winning poker hand combination, in which case the player is not allowed to make additional wagers. In either version, the final seven cards are analyzed and the best five card hand is used to determine the poker hand ranking of the player's hand. A pay table is used based on five card poker hand rankings and the amount wagered by the player to determine the amount won by the player when he achieves a winning hand.
Another popular single player stud poker game is known as DOUBLE DOWN STUD poker. This game is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,137 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,413, the disclosures of each of which are incorporated herein by this reference. In DOUBLE DOWN STUD poker, the player makes a first wager and is dealt four cards all face up. The player may make an additional wager prior to receiving the fifth card. After the fifth card is dealt, the five card hand is compared to a pay table to determine if the player has a winning or losing card combination based on poker hand ranking.
Another stud poker game that has been adapted to a single player video poker format is a game known as LET IT RIDE®. In this game, the player makes a wager of three units at the start of each round of play. The player is then shown three cards face up. The player may decrease his wager by one unit or let all three wagers ride. The player is then shown a fourth card. The player may decrease his wager by one unit or let his wagers ride. The player is then shown a fifth card and the poker hand ranking of the final five card hand is used to determine winning or losing plays based on a pay table. The method of play of LET IT RIDE® is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,081, U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,430 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,892, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,950 (Moody), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein, there is disclosed a method of playing poker that combines a stud poker hand with a draw poker hand. In this '950 patent, the player is dealt two starting hands—one is a stud poker hand and the other is a draw poker hand. The player makes a first wager on the draw poker hand and the player makes a second wager on the stud poker hand. The draw poker hand is then played out by the player, but replacement cards for those cards discarded by the player from the draw poker hand come only from the associated cards in the stud poker hand. In the preferred embodiment, the stud poker hand is aligned adjacent to the draw poker hand and any card discarded from the draw poker hand is replaced by a duplicate of the adjacent stud poker card.
The final draw poker hand is revealed and analyzed to determine if it is a winning poker hand combination with the winning poker hands being shown in a first pay table associated with draw poker. The player receives an award for winning draw poker hands based on the poker ranking of the draw poker hand and the amount of the player's first wager.
The stud poker hand is revealed and analyzed to determine if it is a winning poker hand combination with the winning poker hands being shown in a second pay table associated with stud poker. The player receives an award for winning stud poker hands based on the poker ranking of the stud poker hand and the amount of the player's second wager.
One of the drawbacks to the method of play described in this patent is that the player can only play a single stud poker hand. In order to increase the playability and enjoyment of a video poker game, it is desirable to offer the player the opportunity to play one or more stud poker hands while at the same time playing a draw poker hand.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a stud poker game combined with a draw poker game so that the player can participate in both stud poker and draw poker as part of the same round of play.
It is a feature of the present invention to allow the player to make a first wager to play a draw poker hand. The player also makes a second wager that is allocated among one or more stud poker hands. The player is then dealt both the draw poker hand and the plurality of stud poker hands that the player has determined to play. For each stud poker hand that is a winning hand combination, the player receives a payout for whatever winning hand combination he achieved based on a pay table and the amount of the player's wager on the winning stud poker hand. The draw poker is then played out by the player according to the conventional manner of play of draw poker.
It is an advantage of the present invention that both draw poker and stud poker may be played in the same round of play and the player has the option of playing multiple hands of stud poker thus increasing the fun and excitement of these video poker games.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description.